Krakow and a salt mine

Krakow with its magnificent adorned cathedrals, castles, narrow streets, inviting town square, medieval university and ancient walls holds in itself the key to much of Polish History. As far back as the 13th century, King Ladislaus Jagiello, opened the doors to the Jewish immigration. Krakow was a crossroads, a center of Europe. Nearby the 700-year-old Wieliczka Salt Mines dig deep into Krakow’s Miocene past, digging literally into deposits from millions of years ago when Poland was part of a sea that evaporated and deposited “white gold” giving the area an economic bonanza of wealth. As such Krakow remains the crown jewel – and feels authentic. And when the communist came, they built their model city of Nowa Huta “the new steel mill”. They built the parks and apartments – as isolated fortresses to defend against future invaders, only to have them used against the government when the final days of liberation and transition to democracy prevailed.

But it is more than wealth and buildings, it is people who represent Krakow. Two persons in particular represent revolutions that affected world history. “De revolutionibus orbium coelestium” the book that put the world back in its proper place, by Krakow’s first heretical son, Nicolas Copernicus and much later a revolution given strength to break the bonds of communism by Krakow’s native son Karol Józef Wojtyła – Jan Pawel or Pope John Paul II.